What Is It Ours To Do? Laudato Si’ and Cry of Earth/Cry of Humanity

Well into this second year of our Congregational Laudato Si’ commitment and the third of our Cry of Earth/Cry of Humanity Chapter resolution, it may seem surprising that we are still asking, “What is this about? What does it mean? Just what are we supposed to be doing?” These are not just preliminary questions; they express our ongoing exploration of the interconnections within our common Earth home.

As we discover, celebrate and restore these relationships, we discern our responsibilities with new insight and respect. Opening his encyclical Laudato Si’ [be praised] with the refrain of the Canticle of Creatures by St Francis of Assisi, Pope Francis frames the conversion toward integral ecology as an expression of reverence. Saint Angela herself exhorts: “Be obedient to every creature for love of God, insofar as it is to the honor of God and accords with one’s own integrity.” Rule 9

Collaboration is an essential element of our efforts. In January of this year, a number of our community began an extended Archdiocesan study and discussion of Laudato Si’, which complements our ongoing participation in programs sponsored by the Archdiocesan Office of Multicultural Ministries to address deep-rooted racism. The perspective of integral ecology underlines the mutually reinforcing patterns of marginalization in health, housing and education, as well as areas of finance, policing and legal recourse. We are becoming increasingly aware of our nation’s history of violence against Native American nations and global violations of the rights of indigenous communities. grassroots efforts to interrupt cycles of violence; this initiative continues to explore and promote the paths of peace.

Membership in Louisville’s Interfaith Paths to Peace allows us to dialogue with other faith communities so that we can explore together ways to address the deep division and violence in Louisville. Unrelenting violence across the country prompted the Ursulines to adopt peace and nonviolence as our areas of focus for this second year of our Laudato Si’ Action Plan for our Spring Gathering.

Tragically, school shootings and hate crimes are not random. Even more disturbing is the systemic violence in policing. Last fall, we joined the Spirit in Action Collaborative, a diverse gathering in Louisville’s West End, which acquainted faith leaders with

As part of the 2022 North American Ursuline Convocation, Louisville Ursulines, together with Sacred Heart Schools, hosted a virtual pilgrimage station with the theme: Honoring Diversity in Community. The violence of racism manifest in the deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor initially gave rise to the choice of the “Challenged and Changed” convocation topic. Included in our presentation was an excerpt from our own Archbishop Shelton Fabre’s USCCB statement at the time of George Floyd’s death. We invited Sacred Heart Schools to share its own efforts to cultivate the sense of belonging among campus community.

Our presentation shared the personal experiences of Sister Yuli Oncihuay as a Peruvian in the United States, and that of Sisters Mary Martha Staarman and Kathy Neely in their ministry as interpreters at the Family Community Clinic. This sharing, together with Sister Sue Scharfenberger’s closing meditation, brought home our more than half century in Peru, as well as our present support of migrants and refugees, whether at the United States border or resettling in Louisville.

Several years ago, the Leadership Conference of Women Religious [LCWR] identified the intersection of racism, migration and climate change as a priority for mission. We explored this dynamic as we first began our Laudato Si’ commitment in 2021. The humanitarian crisis at the United States’ southern border has heightened our awareness of the needs of migrants and invited our response while acquainting us with some of the causes of migration. LaCasita Center and the Family Community Clinic supports immigrants in their adjustment to a new culture here in Louisville. Our experience serving at the border deepens our respect and compassion.

The delegation to El Salvador and Honduras, hosted by the SHARE Foundation and co-sponsored by LCWR in December 2022, heard from leaders of indigenous communities of their struggle to preserve their rights to land, to prevent the contamination of their waterways, and to preserve their most basic right to remain on their traditional lands. In the face of escalating assassinations of these leaders, however, the need for international solidarity and advocacy is more urgent.

The difficulties facing economically and politically marginalized communities is exacerbated by climate change. Whether in Central America, Appalachia or the Navajo Nation, devastating natural disasters and erratic weather patterns compromise their sustainability and resilience. Basic access to clean water, or even adequate water, requires more than relief efforts. It calls us to moderate our patterns of consumption and develop more equitable systems of distribution. Last October, in collaboration with Water With Blessings, we co-sponsored the first InterTribal Water Gathering, bringing together a council of Native American leaders to consider the water crises confronting many of their communities, invoking traditional wisdom to address new challenges.

Finally, as we began, the recurring question...What is it ours to do? As a congregational commitment, our Laudato Si’ Action Plan obliges us to integrate our growing understanding of these interlocking relationships and responsibilities into our operations and planning. Reducing our institutional footprint is paralleled by creative use of our collective resources through socially responsible and impactful investment, as well as our long-standing mission-oriented grants. In these first two years of our Laudato Si’ commitment, we have worked to integrate an ecological conscientiousness into leadership decisions, operations, communications and liturgy, as well as bringing another dimension of mindfulness to our ministry.

Each one of us is invited to gift the Canticle of Creatures with a unique verse, an epiphany of the grace of God teaching us “to live temperately, justly and devoutly” (Ti 2:12) in this world...in hope.

May it be so.